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On Tuesday, one of the darkest days in the history of the city of Philadelphia, the Phillies waved the white flag of surrender on the 2012 season. The Phils dumped Shane Victorino to the Dodgers and Hunter Pence to the Giants, in both cases getting back packages of guys I've never heard of.
All to get under the luxury tax threshold? Terrible. The $144 million to Cole Hamels notwithstanding, it just looks to me like the Phillies are once again making decisions based only on money.
First of all, getting rid of Victorino, on top of disappointing women and children all over the Philadelphia area, was a shocking show of disrespect to a man who was a key part of the 2008 championship team. I'm all for Victorino taking Bobby Abreu's job again, but otherwise it's a sad day.
As for Pence, not only does the trade subtract a needed right-handed slugger from the Phillies lineup, while making it necessary to once again play Domonic Brown, but the whole thing is a slap in the face to Liscio's Bakery. Not to mention Philadelphia magazine, which will have to pick a new "next great Phillie."
And the returns are underwhelming. Who's Nate Schierholtz? Didn't he used to be general manager of the Braves? And why trade for Double-A catcher Tommy Joseph? Sounds more like a surgery than a prospect.
And I'm even more upset about the moves they didn't make, like getting third base prospect Mike Olt from the Rangers. Now I've never seen Olt play. I'd never even heard of him until two weeks ago. But I just know deep down that the Phillies are long going to regret not trading Cliff Lee for him.
And speaking of Lee, now we hear that he's on waivers? The idea of the Phils letting him get away for nothing is just disgraceful.
For years, us fans demanded certain things of the Phillies organization. We wanted them to spend money, trade for superstars, exchange players we've never heard of for ones we have, and behave as an aggressive, powerful large-market team. Ruben Amaro has done all of those things, and look where it got us. Shame on him for listening to us.
Other Philly sports takes:
- I was feeling all optimistic about the Eagles this year- but then Michael Vick wrote a book. Now, we're looking at a distraction that will almost certainly cost the team 3-4 wins.
- JoePa is the most upset I've ever been about a statue being removed, other than Rocky three different times.
- Congrats to the Sixers on signing Kwame Brown, the Domonic Brown of the NBA.
- On the Shea Weber deal, it goes without saying that the Flyers should've offered more. But what makes small-market teams think they have the right to match our offers for star players?